~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

Vietnam grants amnesty to over 10,000 prisoners

HANOI - A total of 10,693 Vietnamese prisoners will be freed in the next few days in a presidential amnesty to mark national day celebrations on September 2, officials said on Wednesday. Sixty-one foreigners will benefit from the amnesty, which was signed Tuesday by President Tran Duc Luong, presidential office director Nguyen Canh Dinh told reporters. The group will include nationals from the United States, Canada, France, Australia, Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia and China.

However deputy police minister General Le The Tiem said the number of prisoners released this year is "was a significant number in comparison to the number of prisoners being held in the country." Hanoi has never revealed the country's total prison population. The Vietnamese authorities have released several batches of prisoners in amnesties granted during the past year to mark historic events such as the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces and the end of the Vietnam War. A total of 12,264 inmates were freed in April to mark the occasion, including some 30 foreigners. Since the beginning of the year a record 22,957 prisoners have been given presidential amnesties.

The Vietnamese government has not indicated whether any political prisoners will be released in the forthcoming amnesty. The communist government in Hanoi regularly asserts there are no political prisoners in Vietnam, and that only those who break the law are imprisoned. However foreign diplomats believe there are a number of political prisoners. A recent human rights report by the US State Department estimated there were some 200 political and religious prisoners languishing behind bars in Vietnam.

Tran Thi Cam, 74, whose Canadian daughter was executed in April for drug trafficking, will be granted an amnesty for health reasons, a foreign ministry official said, Cam's release from Thanh Xuan prison, close to Hanoi, is scheduled for September 1, the foreign ministry said. Cam was arrested in April 1996 with her 44-year-old Canadian daughter, Nguyen Thi Hiep, for trafficking 5.5 kilogrammes (12 pounds) of heroin. The execution of Cam's daughter, who held Canadian citizenship since 1982, on April 25 prompted the Canadian goverment to impose diplomatic sanctions against Vietnam. Hiep's mother, a Vietnamese national, was given a life sentence.

The foreign ministry said 1,682 women would be freed in the upcoming amnesty, bringing the total number of women freed this year to 3,663. According to official records 59.02 per cent of prisoners released in the April amnesty have found work, while 40.76 per cent have found temporary employment. Only 0.22 per cent have committed new crimes. In 1995, 3,000 prisoners were granted an amnesty. A 1998 amnesty of nearly 8,000 prisoners saw the release of a number of leading political dissidents, including Doan Viet Hoat and Nguyen Dan Que.

Agence France Presse - August 31, 2000.